No Mercy (Dark-Hunter 18)

Chapter 14

Sam watched as Dev was pulled out of Thorn's domain and returned to Peltier House so that he could prepare for his journey. A sob lodged in her throat. She couldn't believe what he was willing to do for her. The risk he was taking.

Just don't die. Please.

Not because of her. Especially not when she couldn't help him. What kind of torture was this?

Damn you, Thorn.

"Sam?"

She jerked around at the soft sound of Amaranda's voice. "What are you doing here?"

"Risking a lot more than we should. But we know the terror you feel and we can't let you suffer."

"We?"

"Me, Cael, and Fang." She gestured toward the bed. "If you lie down, Fang and I can pull your essence out and you'll be able to go with Dev."

"You can do that?"

"We think so."

"Think" was not a power word, especially the hesitant way Amaranda had said it. A chill washed over her. "What aren't you telling me?"

"There's a chance that you might not be able to come back...intact."

Oh yeah, that was bad. "Care to elaborate?"

Amaranda's eyes echoed her uncertainty. "I'm going to have to take you into a deep unconscious state--not something I've ever tried to do before. I might screw this up and it could leave you outside your body forever. Or you could be left in a perpetual coma."

Sam glanced back to the wall where Dev was writing down Thorn's riddle so that he could decipher it. He was risking his own freedom and his life for her.

Could she do anything less for him?

"I'll do it."

Amaranda bit her lip. "Do you understand the risks?"

Sam nodded. "Thank you for at least trying. I really appreciate what you're doing, and if you screw this up, I promise I won't hold much of a grudge."

She made a sound that basically said she thought Sam was an idiot for agreeing to do this. "I hope you still feel that way in the event I can't put you back together again."

"Believe me, I will."

Amaranda gestured toward the bed. "All right, then, lie down and let's attempt the impossible."

Sam obeyed her. Flat on her back, she met Amaranda's nervous gaze and smiled before she repeated the Amazon battle motto. "Who wants to live forever?"

Especially if she couldn't live it with Dev.

Dev sat at his desk with his head in his hands. He let out a long frustrated breath as he studied words that made no sense to him whatsoever. "In plain sight on the banks of the Champs-Elysees, the girdle lies hidden away. At the brink of the darkest night, the location fills your sight. To see what can never be found, look for the circle round. To reclaim that which the gods rescind, you must face mightiest Whirlwind."

The Champs-Elysees was a road in Paris and there was a circle at the end of it. While it was near the water, it wasn't on the water. So how could it have a bank?

And never mind that whole whirlwind nonsense. He'd never known something like that to strike Paris.

"This is hopeless," he muttered as he reached for his iPhone to Google info on Paris. Even with all of this being a long, long shot, he wasn't going to give up.

Not on Sam.

A knock sounded on his door. "I'm busy," he called, assuming it was Aimee wanting to annoy him with something petty like he forgot to put the seat down on the toilet or left a sock in the bathroom. She was forever yelling at him over bullshit.

"Dev?"

He paused at Fang's muffled voice. "Yeah?"

Fang pushed the door open. "We know where you need to go."

"The mental ward?"

Fang laughed. "Yeah, but I was talking about your current matter, not your long-standing reservation." He slid a meaningful glare at the paper Dev was studying.

A whisper of hope ignited inside him. "You know where the girdle is?"

"I don't. But I think I know someone who does." Fang opened the door wider to show him a flickering image of Sam.

A dagger of relief plunged so deep into him that it actually made his eyes water. Before he could think better of it, he was on his feet and across the room. His heart hammering, he went to pull Sam into his arms only to learn that his hands passed right through her body.

What the hell?

She smiled at him. "I'm not exactly corporeal."

Fear exploded inside him. "Are you dead?"

"No," she and Fang said simultaneously.

Sam indicated Fang with her thumb. "Amaranda and Fang combined their powers so that I could help you do this."

Dev scowled. "Help how?"

"You're French. You know nothing about Greece. Meanwhile, I'm a walking encyclopedia on the subject."

"Fang's Greek."

Fang shook his head in denial. "My last name's Greek, but I was born in medieval England. Believe me, I know very little about Greece."

"As I said," Sam's tone was firm, "I can help you both."

Yeah, if he was willing to risk it. But he wasn't. "I have to do this alone."

Fang stepped forward. "No, you don't."

Dev cut him off. "Look, dude, the only thing that scares me more than Thorn is my sister. Trust me, anything happens to you and she's going to sugarcoat my boys and eat them for breakfast." He locked gazes with Sam. "And I can't risk you."

"Why?"

"Because you're not the only one who has issues with people dying around them."

She let out an aggravated sigh. "Well, it's kind of hard to die when things go right through me. Unlike you."

She had a point. But he still wasn't ready to give in. "Thorn's clue wasn't about Greece. It was about Paris. That's where I was born and it's my territory."

She scoffed. "Don't be silly, Dev. There's more to the clue than what Thorn said. Nothing is ever that overt. Not when dealing with beings like him."

"How about this? I refuse to let you go."

She gave him no quarter. "What you say against this doesn't matter. The die is cast. I'm here and as Thorn said, the clock's ticking. So you either deal with me or you're going to waste so much time that we're both sunk."

Fang scratched the back of his neck as if their argument made him uneasy. "Damn, Dev, don't you know anything about women? You leave her behind and she'll only find another way to follow you and probably get hurt doing it. She goes with us, at least you have a chance to protect her and you can definitely watch over her."

He clenched his teeth, wanting to choke both of them, but Fang was correct. Sam's obstinacy knew no boundaries. "All right. You said you know where we're supposed to go?"

"Yes. Hades."

Dev lifted one brow. "The Greek god of the Underworld?"

She nodded. "In plain sight on the banks of the Champs-Elysees--that's French for the Elysian Fields"--Duh, he knew that. He'd just temporarily forgotten it.--"which is in the Underworld, also known as Hades. The Underworld has five rivers running through it. I assume one of them has the banks where the girdle is kept."

That did make more sense than what he'd been thinking and if it was in the Underworld, there would most likely be a freak whirlwind and other hazards. "What about the rest of the riddle?"

"They must be clues we'll find once we're there. But you'll need me to translate them."

Dev snorted. Yeah, 'cause he was too illiterate to figure it out.